I get lots of email from people—it’s not just creationists and wingnuts calling me nasty names, but also people on my side who just want to express their appreciation, or people passing along tips and links to interesting stories. I rarely reply. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that if I wrote back to everyone who was sending me stuff, I’d have to do nothing but write email replies all day long. I also can’t possibly post it all, either, unless you want to see 50 short articles a day consisting of nothing but a link (I have been tempted, I confess.)
So let me just say now, thanks! Keep it coming! I don’t mind that kind of email at all, even if the volume is sometimes a bit much.
One other thing: if you send me something, I’m happy to give all the credit you want. One thing that sometimes stops me from using a piece is that I don’t know exactly what the person submitting it would want me to do with attribution. This is a brutally godless, liberal blog, and I know that sometimes people are reluctant to have their name associated with those kinds of sentiments. It’s helpful if you say something like “please keep me anonymous!” or “refer to me as Jane” or “refer to me as Jane Smith of Tacoma, WA, and I have a blog at some-name.blogspot.com.” If you pass me something juicy, I am overjoyed to plug your website, so please don’t be shy. Besides, once you become a blogospheric bigshot, I’ll appreciate it when you link back to me once in a while.
But Atrios already has that approach covered over at Eschaton. No need for more one-liners here.
I recently emailed a friendly “olive branch.” Notwithstanding the volume you noted here, I was somewhat disappointed not to get a reply, as we have exchanged many comments & links. I will take this post as an explanation.
The gist of my email was a blanket apology for prior offenses and a proposed “invective cease-fire” going forward, which I will observe in any case.
Maybe you could adopt Tara’s practice of a Saturday Roundup? In any case, I’ve sent you the occasional cartoon link, but I already knew you were a busy guy.